Phil Matier: Twitter IPO Heralding New Tech Boom, Or Bust?
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — All eyes were on Twitter Thursday morning which everyone knows by now started trading at $45.10 a share after being priced Wednesday night at $26—within minutes it had shot up more than $50.
This, of course, is not the Bay Area's first tech boom. But one of the differences this time around is that it comes after a recession.
Phil Matier: High-Tech Booms and Busts
Remember the late 1990s? Lots of money was flowing around, lots of questions about which things were really generating money and which things were going to go bust.
We have had a history of booms and busts in the Bay Area since the Gold Rush. This is just the latest one; we have been here before and the politicians can't get to this one fast enough.
There's another difference too: the protesters in front the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. There are those that are not thrilled about the influx of high-tech workers causing rents to drastically rise and pushing long-time residents out of their neighborhoods.
I've been to these tech companies when the politicians go and talk about the wonder of innovation and the bright future it's brought. If you threw some southern accents in that room, you might think you were in Alabama.
It's all young and mostly white. There's none of the minorities or the sort of "let's raise all the boats" that we've heard—usually when politicians are talking about handing out tax incentives.
But these companies get tax breaks left and right on the federal, state and municipal levels to come to regions like the Bay Area to make the engine go.
Now they come in and eat at fancy restaurants where culinary students working there can pay off their loans. Is it not good for all of us to have the economy up?
It is and I'm not going to protest that.
The money is coming. Somebody's house goes up in value; they sell it. The next person who buys it or rents it pays a lot more. That's they way it goes—all things rise.
The question is: how long does it last? And will there be a hangover from it?
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